Video games: Sony and Tencent acquire 30% stake in FromSoftware studio (“Elden Ring”)

TOKYO – Japanese video game studio FromSoftware, which specially designed the popular “Dark Souls” series and the recently popular “Elden Ring” game, announced on Wednesday a 30% stake in its capital by giants Sony and Tencent.

A subsidiary of China’s Tencent Corporation in Hong Kong will acquire a 16.25% stake in the studio and Sony, 14.09%, with a total investment of 36.4 billion yen (about $262.5 million at current prices), according to a statement from Kadokawa Corporation. Parent Company of FromSoftware.

This financial contribution will give the studio more resources to develop its games, without changing anything in its “philosophy” and “independence” in terms of outreach to the gamer community and its choice of platforms, FromSoftware emphasized.

According to the studio, the collaboration with its new minority shareholders should provide it with technical assistance and allow it to expand its business further globally.

FromSoftware has long been seen as an attractive leader for Sony, which is making targeted acquisitions to video game studios and publishers around the world.

The PlayStation 5 maker notably acquired the American developer and publisher Bungie at the beginning of the year for 3.6 billion US dollars, and then increased its stake in Epic Games, the publisher of the popular shooting game Fortnite.

Tencent also owns shares in Epic Games as well as France’s Ubisoft, where it could soon increase its stake, according to press reports in early August.

FromSoftware notably released “Elden Ring” at the end of February, an action RPG (half role-playing game, half action game) set in a dark fantasy world, the result of a collaboration between game maker Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin, author of the literary saga behind the series. TV show “Game of Thrones”.

“Elden Ring” has been successful with over 16 million units sold so far.